Now, with food prices rising to unattainable levels for the majority of the Greek population, the government is taking the desperate step of allowing merchants to sell expired foods, presumably at cheaper prices, so that poverty-stricken Greeks have at least something to put on their tables, regardless of the health risks posed:

Greece will allow the sale of expired food at a price lower than the original, in a move that the government has not been able to justify but consumer groups have interpreted as evidence of their inability to stop the escalating cost of commodities.

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The regulations exclude meat and dairy from the list of perishables that can be sold and sets a ceiling dates you can continue marketing. Thus, foods in which the expiration date is indicated by the day and the month, may continue on the shelf for another week. In the event that the “best before” only month and year point, the sale may be extended for one month, and in the event that the date indicated year alone, the sale date may be extended by one quarter.

Though Moraitakis Efe declined to specify the reasons for this decision and merely noted that the legislation already existed, consumer groups and even government agencies have criticized the measure. “Virtually admit their inability to control prices,” Efe reported Tsiafutis Victor Consumers Association ‘Quality of Life’, one of the oldest in Greece.

In the Greece of the crisis, the wage and pension cuts and rising unemployment, food prices and commodities has not stopped rising. Between August 2011 and August 2012, the price of sugar shot up 15%, the eggs, 6.8% for butter by 3.2% and that of coffee, 5.9%, according to data from the Statistics Authority.

“It is an immoral act,” criticized Tsiafutis. “Instead of taking initiatives to control prices, allow the sale of food past the expiration date.”

Moreover, from the National Food Agency gets even concerned that the measure serves to something. “It is doubtful that these foods are to be sold at low prices, because the price

control mechanisms have failed,” said Yannis Mijas, president of this organization linked to the government. Indeed, the measure of how much states must be the initial price reduction, which is at the discretion of the merchant.

To Mijas, selling expired food is also a moral dilemma, to divide consumers into two groups: those who can afford basic food and those who, because of poverty, “are forced to resort to dubious quality food.”

Though not yet as pronounced , we are already experiencing similar effects right here at home.

Amid the never-ending promises of brighter days ahead, each month we add more to our already unsustainable national debt, prices for essential goods like food and gas continue to rise, more people join government support programs, and thousands of jobs are vaporized.

Like Greece, life as we know it in America is on a steady and progressively worsening decline.